Lawrence Jones, the Founder and CEO of UKFast has responded to an investigation by the Financial Times, which accuses him of “sexual assault and workplace misconduct.”
The 51-year-old released a statement through his lawyers, which they requested was published in full:
“The Financial Times’ claims of unlawful behaviour are wholly untrue. I have not been provided with any proper details of any of these allegations. These are false claims by anonymous individuals which are completely at odds with the workplace culture which I have always promoted.
“The allegations are hurtful and damaging, and particularly upsetting for my wife, our family and the UKFast team. We have dedicated 20 years of our lives to UKFast and we are hugely proud of how amazing the business that we have built together is. We take great pride in the fact that our team have over the past 10 years been responsible for UKFast featuring regularly in the Sunday Times’ “Best Companies To Work For” list and similarly in the “Great Place to Work” list.”
The Financial Times investigation includes interviews with a number of former employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The newspaper said their claims about office culture were supported by “documents, photographs and screenshots reviewed by the FT and interviews with family, friends and colleagues.”
Jones was awarded an MBE in 2015, for Services to the Digital Economy.